Jedi in Training

posted October 18, 2013 in Portraits

Like father, like son. The Force is strong with this little one. Considering he’s about to celebrate two years, he’s already writing his own creative rules thanks to the tutelage of his mom and uber creative father, Kevin Von Qualen. Inspiration for this family portrait commission hit me like dualing lightsabers.

When attending a workshop this summer with Kerinsa Marie and Neil Carpenter in Georgia, Kevin expressed his desire to hang a signature kern-photo family portrait light painting on his wall. With stealthy coordination with Kerinsa, his wish was my command. We met up at my former stomping grounds, Green Mountain in Lakewood, CO. After a few failed attempts, I kneeled on top of a prickly pear cactus. Ouch!!! Perhaps it was penance for not fully understanding equations of light reciprocity failure caused by longer exposure times. Painting with light, after all, is a revered dark art.

Light sabers serve dual purposes: 1) they entertain a two-year old 2) they entertain parents smiling at their kid. Bonus: they are a new color in the box of crayons you can find down the ‘cheap light’ aisle at Target.

PhaseOne 645 DF w/ IQ 140 back, 55mm at f/16 for 20 seconds, ISO 50. Lit with iPhone ColorSpin app and 640 W/S full power pop on strobe with umbrella as diffuser.

Intent and mistakes remain key for creativity. They also yield a smorgasbord of visual outtakes:

Happy Friday!

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If you are interested in articles on shooting medium format digital and painting with light, you’ll enjoy :
Tips and Tricks for Painting with Light, Revealed
Pros and Cons of shooting Medium Format Digital
12 Commandments of shooting MF Digital